electrical problem...won't stay running, HELP!
 

Over spring break I drove the T/A to Tampa and back--all told 3200 miles logged. Luckily for me, it decided to break after I returned safely to Michigan. I was driving along fine as can be, then the tach starts jumping up and down, engine is backfiring a little. (the engine is NOT going up and down WITH the tach). It's done this once before--I shut it down then started it again and she was fine...not this time. I pulled into a driveway and it dies shortly after the choppiest idle I've ever been witness to. Tried starting it again, but unless I give it tons of gas it won't start, and even if it does she won't stay idling without an obscene amount of gas, which I deemed to be unwise anyway.

My theory: the ground on the engine block is loose? Obviously it has to be something electrical, but where exactly? I've pretty much ruled out the opti since every once in a while I can get a good start without problems.

One probably unrelated problem that happened at the same time: one rib of the serpentine shredded off and managed to jam itself between the power steering pulley and housing, causing a small leak and fine mist of power steering fluid everywhere.


...anybody have a spare power steering pump?

This sounds different from your idea, but the same thing happened to me from what you are describing. Check the Air Intake Elbow infront of the Throttle Body. There is a Resonator Tube that connects to the bottom of it, and runs below inback of the Radiator. Make sure that is connected and there is no leaks anywhere between the Throttle Body, and the Mass Air Flow.

Sounds somewhat like a vaccum leak. Mine did the same thing, Whenever I unhooked the MAF, it would run fine. Whenever I plugged it in, it would give a choppy idle, then die. It only ran if I kept the RPMs up. Not sure what it is, just sharing what has happened to me.

Sounds like an opti to me, my car acted just like yours the first time it went out.

uhmm happen to me before check your opti and if you checked it and its ok might want to check your MAP sensor and MAF.

My vote is bad opti also, my car acted like that after i installed a new opit. (lasted 16miles) While the original lasted 60k miles.

Thanks fellas I'll post back when it's fixed...resolved threads are more useful than open-ended.